Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1908 — TAKEN MONDAY [ARTICLE]

TAKEN MONDAY

“Dan” Day Now Safe In the Reformatory.

WILL LIKELY STAY FULL TERM

Murderer of Daisy Phillips Begins His Two to Twenty-One Year Sentence.

.¶ Deputy Sheriff Joe O’Connor took “Dan” Day, the convicted crippled and deformed murderer of Daisy Phillips, to the reformatory at Jeffersonville Monday, leaving here on the early morning train via Indianapolis, to begin his indeterminate sentence of from two to twenty-one years. Dan did not seem to take his departure very hard, although just as he was about to step aboard he stopped a moment and took a farewell glance about at the scenes around the depot that have been so familiar to him all his life and where he spent much time. The trip on the train he seemed to rather enjoy, and looked out of the window most of the time at the rapidly fleeting landscape as the train glided along. He was not hand-cuffed, as there could be no possibility of his making his escape.

.¶ Arriving at Indianapolis he accompanied Joe into the union station while the latter purchased tickets for Jeffersonville. There was but twenty minutes between trains, and soon he was being whirled away over the Pennsylvania road to Jeffersonville where they arrived about noon and the prisoner was turned over to the officers. The Jeffersonville reformatory is a busy manufacturing place, clothing, furniture, shoes, iron and tin work, and lots of other things are manufactured, and it is likely Dan will be taught some useful trade. He is not likely to be let out until the expiration of the maximum sentence.

.¶ Perhaps the whole sad affair was caused from whiskey, and Dan says he will never drink any more of the d—— stuff. He will not for several years at least. .¶ Yesterday morning the nearly one quart of whiskey found at the Phillips home and in the bottle which Dan had thrown away or dropped in his hurried flight after the shooting, and which was used in the trial of the case, was destroyed by Sheriff O’Connor by pouring it out on the ground.

.¶ There has been different reports as to how the jury stood in this case, and. from a thoroughly reliable source we learn that on the first ballot there was one vote for the death penalty, but only one. Then there were three and a part of the time four votes that the defendant was of unsound mind (not insane), and it was about midnight that it got down to one man to eleven. Then, about noon the next day, this man stated that rather than disagree, he would vote for 2 to 21 years imprisonment, and the balloting was then on life imprisonment or 2 to 21 years, and stood 6 to 6 and 8 to 4 a part of the time, and once 9 to 3 in favor of life imprisonment. Juror Ellis Jones of Remington is said to have been the juror who could not agree with the others on a life sentence, but stated that could he have had reason to believe that from Dan’s actions and the evidence that he went to the Phillips home purposely to kill the girl and that he was perfectly sane and accountable for his acts at all times, even when sober, he would vote for a more severe penalty. The jurors were all honest in their opinions, and all thought he should not be allowed to run at large any longer.